Little Blankies for Chinese Orphans- Please Help!

Are you able to do a simple sewing project? Do you have extra fabric laying around your house? Do you have a heart for the orphans in China? (as China is obviously on my heart latley.)

You can make little SIMPLE blankets for orphans in China. Learn how by going to the Skip to My Lou Blog.

Thanks for the Tip Southern Girl!

CHINA- Harvesting Organs from Prisoners

I have been keeping my lips shut on an issue burning inside of me. Normally when injustice boils my blood I can do nothing but shout it from the proverbial rooftops. But this… this has been so hard to digest.

I’m not sure why I have been clueless. After I learned of it, I brought it up on seperate occasions to both my father and brother and they both knew about it. I can not fathom why this isn’t on MSM (main stream media) and why there isn’t total OUTCRY about it! Please Media don’t tell me for the one MILLIONTH time what Paris Hilton is up to and not report what may possibly be one of the biggest human rights violations of our time!

It isn’t bad enough that China forces abortions on women about to give birth. And repetitively commits religious persecution by imprisoning people for their faith. But what do they do with these prisoners???

THEY FREAKING HARVEST THEIR ORGANS TO MAKE MONEY FROM RICH FORIEGNERS DESPERATE TO LIVE!

This has been on my mind for awhile now, unable to imagine the depths of depravity one must be in to be able to kill a person, even 5 people at times, for the possibility of finding 1 kidney for well funded person.

Of course, China denies this. Hard proof of the practice is difficult to find, but I have been reading incredible research on the topic and believe there is more than enough convincing evidence This Report on Organ Harvesting takes an investment of time to read… but if this issue breaks your heart the way it has mine you need to schedule the time and read it.

I have not been able to figure out how to sum up my thoughts on the process, or how to appropriately compile talking points from the report… I have not attempted discussing it on Mommyzabs previously. I wanted to do this topic justice. But all I can do now is pray and beg people to listen, even if my writing can appropriately reflect the urgency. My influence in this world is completely minute. However, I’m compelled to do whatever I can.

I’m not typically a boycotter. Mostly because Christians seem to take boycotting to a ridiculous extreme. It takes A LOT to make me boycott. I’m just not sure I can give another penny to support China knowingly. The more I talk to others, the more insight I gain… the more I have to speak with my money. Sometimes it is the only language people listen too.

My Boycott won’t be able to be 100%. Sometimes it just is not feasible (like when my child gets a McD’s kids meal with his friends and there is a made in China toy with it, It is hard to tell a 3 year old they can’t have it when all their kids have their kids meal toys at the table…) But I have already begun looking at labels on everything and staying away from China.

On that tangent… since boycotting China makes it quite difficult to buy toys for your children, I found a helpful link for finding products (including toys and toy brands) that are not made in China.

I am going to publish the following article in my blog in full and I do hope that isn’t inappropriate. I want you to read it as it is a better summation than I can do. Please do take the time to read the Full Report. There is more information than could ever justly be summarized.

Organs harvested from live prisoners
Allison Hanes, CanWest News Service
Published: Friday, May 18, 2007

TORONTO — Foreign patients who travel to China for transplants are likely receiving organs culled from political prisoners who are alive when their corneas, kidneys and livers are harvested, then left to die, an international group of doctors armed with a chilling Canadian report is warning.

In a new twist on an old practice of using organs from executed criminals, China has since 2000 turned to living donors and outlawed Falun Gong members to supply a growing trade in medical transplants, Doctors Against Organ Harvesting said Thursday during a public forum held at the University of Toronto.

With increasing numbers of Canadians on long waiting lists turning to China to save their own lives, the newly formed organization is seeking to warn patients that someone else’s life is likely being sacrificed in the process of obtaining organs.

“Each person who travels to China for an organ causes the death of another human,” said Dr. Torsten Trey, a Washington, D.C.-based physician and founding member of Doctors Against Organ Harvesting.

The group is sounding the alarm in the medical community about mounting evidence of unethical transplants in China. They want doctors to impress the information upon their patients. They want hospitals and universities to close their doors to visiting Chinese physicians and scholars looking to hone their techniques. And they want medical journals to reject research on transplants conducted in China.

“Medical science cannot build up any knowledge which is based on inhuman and unethical procedures,” said Trey, who compared China’s pilfering of organs from Falun Gong practitioners to Nazi medical experimentation during the Holocaust.

Doctors Against Organ Harvesting was formed in the wake of a Canadian investigation first released last year.

Authored by former Liberal MP David Kilgour and Winnipeg human rights lawyer David Matas, the report claims there is a widespread and systematic policy in China of selling organs from living donors to a growing clientele of desperate patients.

Kilgour said Thursday it is clear Falun Gong members are being targeted over other ethnic groups and religions, as a part of a campaign to villainize their spiritual practice since it fell out of favour with the government in 2000.

The report’s conclusions were drawn from interviews with a handful of eyewitnesses from the medical side, recipients of organs harvested in China, official government pronouncements, statistics showing a sudden explosion in the number of transplants performed, marketing Web sites and undercover inquiries to hospital.

In one instance, an Asian patient recounted that after rifling through a list of potential donors, a military doctor departed and returned to the hospital several times, bringing back a total of eight different kidneys before finally settling on a match.

In another, a sick patient found out one day he needed a transplant and had an organ within 24 hours.

Web sites market transplants in China in five different languages and in some cases guarantee availability of a matching organ within two weeks. The average wait time for a kidney in Canada is 32.5 months, while in British Columbia it is 52.5 months.

In surreptitious phone calls to Chinese transplant hospitals by Mandarin-speaking investigators, medical staff admitted organs came from Falun Gong prisoners.

While he is sympathetic to the plight of ailing Canadians who wait years for a transplant and face the prospect of dying before a match comes along, Kilgour said patients and doctors cannot turn a blind eye.

“Medicine cannot be practised by killing innocent people like chickens,” he said.

Gerry Koffman, a Toronto general practitioner and member of Doctors Against Organ Harvesting, said there are about 100 confirmed cases of Canadian patients from Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver having transplants done in China.

original report from Leader-Post (Regina)
(hat tip: ChinaView)

I wrote the author of the China View Blog a couple times to gain further perspective on what we can do. He is busy but has been very helpful. His 2 pieces of advice on what to do were the following:

A. as an individual, for our safety reason, buy as less Chinese products as we can. The bottom line is do not make our own life difficult, if the Chinese product is the only choice.

B. Urge/push the government/trade companies take action to boycott
until the situation is changed. Government action is the most effective way,
because for business companies profit is always their first choice and
they seldom really care about human rights.

To make it happen, we need to raise awareness and educate the officals,
NGOs, trade companies,etc, by make appointment/writing letter/email/fax,
and also the most important thing we are doing now, blogging.

I would like to add… If boycotting China gained enough buzz… like THE ONE campaign has, I do think it could be possible to effect the commerce world. If awareness was raised to the point that people were boycotting en masse and deciding to live with less in order to come against China’s human rights violations, some businesses would take the hint.

You may think, “this republican has fallen off her rocker” 🙂 But realize that I serve Jesus Christ before any political party. And though Republicans have more the reputation of ruthless capitalists, and though I do believe capitalism is the less of evils in economic systems, ethics are not to be forsaken. We must always respect human life because God created it. Innocents must always be protected. Always.

PLEASE bookmark the China View Blog and stay up to date on the CONSTANT human rights violations by the Chinese government. We as a nation have got to stop turning a blind eye toward what they are doing.

When is War Okay?

I’m going to open a can of worms with this one.

Let’s take the War in Iraq out of the equation… And the “war on terror” is such a difficult one to define that we should be careful on discussing that one as well.

What I want to know your thoughts on is,When is war okay?

Was World War 1 justified?

World War 2?

Many Christians are against the Iraq war… And I see some of their points, though I haven’t come to a personal conclusion. I know we (US) are there and can’t just run out right now. I don’t know what specific decisions could have been made better. I know that it is good Saddam is gone. Beyond that, we need to defeat the terrorists that are there… but I have no answers.

What about situations like Darfur? What if Iran or N. Korea get Nukes and are determined to use them? What wars were worth it in the past? In both world wars, the death-tolls were incredible!

Check out these Estimates via Wikipedia: (they seem unreal to me!)

World War 1 between 15 million and 66 million (larger number includes Spainish Flu deaths.)

World War 2 between 60 million and 72 million (the deadliest war ever) Included in these casualties is an estimated 50% civilian casualty!

Korean War between 2.5 million and 3.5 million

Vietnam War between 2.3 million and 3.8 million

American Civil War est. 970,000 (including 350,000 from disease)

Current War in Iraq between 214,000 and 655,000 and counting

I could go on….

Every casualty sucks.

So what makes it worth it? At what point is the cause great enough? Was stopping Hitler from taking over the world to form his Arian nation enough?

What constitues a “just war”. I have no clue.

Not

one

clue.

I know that it is a decision you should make with fear and trembling before the Lord, but that’s about all I know.

So for all those Christians that aren’t total pacificts, but are only for “A JUST WAR”, What does a just war look like?

Are Evangelicals Evolving?

I just read an article on Hot Air entitled NYT Studies Evangelicals in the Mist. The article is referring and commentating on this article written in the New York Times. I encourage you to read both articles in full. I want to point out some specific points of interest to me and add my own commentary. I would love to hear your thoughts as well.

First off, to sum up the articles (though I do believe that you should read them for yourself,) They are discussin the shift in Evangelical Christianity from the Falwell and Robertson days in politics to the more centrist view of emerging leaders like Bill Hybels (Willow Creek, Chicago) and Rick Warren (Saddleback, California).

I agree with this. Evangelicals are moving increasingly toward the center rather than the rigid right.

According to the following quote one thing that evangelicals have not ditched is the pro-life movement. Thank GOD! This after all was the very same movement that pulled Fawell into the political scene to begin with.

“The abortion issue is going to continue to be a unifying factor among evangelicals and Catholics,” said the Rev. Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, who is often held up as an example of the new model of conservative Christian leaders. “That’s not going to go away.”

They go on to question the electability of Guiliani with this “new generation” of evangelicals.

The persistence of abortion as a core concern for evangelical voters, who continue to represent a broad swath of the Republican base, could complicate efforts by Rudolph W. Giuliani, who has been leading the Republican presidential field in nationwide polls, to get primary voters to move past the issue and accept his support for abortion rights.

I have speculated before that I don’t know if Guliani is truly electable if the religious right can’t get past his abortion status (of which I am one,) and the Times seems to agree. I have many friends who vote independently and one of the only things that keeps them voting republican IS the abortion issue.

If Guiliani loses a large part of these independent voters can he win? Will those people just not vote at all because they don’t like any of their choices? Right or wrong, I could see that happening among many people I know. They are fiscally democrats, but morally republicans…I could see them either not voting or voting democrat for the sake of social programs.

Evangelicals also seem quite split on the idea of Climate Change. Hybels and Warren signed a call to action on climate change last year. The former head of the Christian Coalition even stepped down last year for his signing of this same document. As the Times points out, this has unified some typically conservative christian groups a long with the more liberal groups headed by Jim Wallace and Ronald Sider (Evangelicals for Social Action). On the other end of the Climate Change debate you have (had) Fawell, Robertson, and Dobson.

The Times also point out,

Another evangelical standard-bearer who did not sign the statement was Charles W. Colson, 75, founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries, who said in an interview that there were many environmental groups behind the statement that were hostile to evangelical causes. Nevertheless, he said he appreciated the direction that younger evangelical leaders are taking the movement.

As you can see, Evangelical leaders are both united and divided on the topic of climate change.

The former Christian Coalition Leader, Joel Hunter stated,

Mr. Giuliani would not garner much of the evangelical vote because of his liberal views on social issues.

“There always will be in the evangelical movement a strong identification with what we call the traditional moral issues — abortion, marriage between a man and a woman, addiction to pornography,” he said.

A 2004 survey by John C Green attempted to quantify the traditional Christian right evangelical against the newer centrist politically un-involved evangelical,

The two camps are roughly the same size, each representing 40 to 50 percent of the total.

It is estimated that since that survey the number of centrists has grown considerably.

What I am personally noticing is a move toward evangelicals influencing culture change outside politics. The times also points this movement out.

Gabe Lyons, 32, is emblematic of the transformation among many younger evangelicals. He grew up in Lynchburg, Va., attending Mr. Falwell’s church. But he has shied away from politics. Instead, he heads the Fermi Project, a loose “collective” dedicated to teaching evangelicals to shape culture through other means, including media and the arts.

While I think this is crucial… I also believe that we can not at the same time totally neglect politics. It is part and parcel to culture change as much as it is a reflection of culture. I don’t believe we should back out of it completely in our attempts to influence culture through social action, media, arts, etc.

The Hot Air Article commentary on this evangelical evolution points this out from a round-table interview with Rick Warren (Purpose Driven Life, Saddleback Church, California) that Rick had said this to Jaun Williams,

Now the word “fundamentalist” actually comes from a document in the 1920s called the Five Fundamentals of the Faith. And it is a very legalistic, narrow view of Christianity, and when I say there are very few fundamentalists, I mean in the sense that they are all actually called fundamentalist churches, and those would be quite small. There are no large ones.

The article then maps out these 5 fundamentals Warren is speaking of:

1. The inerrancy of the autographs (or original writings) of scripture.
2. The virgin birth and deity of Christ.
3. The substitutionary view of the atonement.
4. The bodily resurrection of Christ.
5. The imminent return of Christ.

I don’t know about you… But these aren’t super legalistic in my opinion, and I have seen my share of legalism. These fundamentals seem rather sound. I am surprised that Warren said this.

I know for a fact that my “Large” church adhere’s to these 5 “fundamentals” even though it is a rather centerist church. In fact, every “large” church I have been a part in my life adheres to those fundamentals.

Hot Air pointed this out, saying

A savvy reporter at that Pew forum would have asked Warren, “Which of those five fundamentals represent a ‘very legalistic, narrow’ view of Christianity?” No one thought to ask him that.

And also going on to say,

The answer, by the way, is none of the fundamentals represent a “narrow, legalistic” view of Christianity.

They’re all essential beliefs. Believing in the fundamentals doesn’t make you a fundamentalist. It just makes you a Christian. The fundamentals were put together to unify Christians of all stripes on the basics that unite us. They’re not just fundamentalist in design or intent. So Warren either has his fundamentalism taxonomy wrong, or he has his theology wrong.

I definitely agree with him (Bryan the author) on that.

So what do you think? New Generation? Or is this a generation *trying* to look different? Are we just finding that *the church* can’t be boxed as easily as many would like to think? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? In accepting this are we really *divided* as a church and thus less influential? I don’t know? I really don’t. I am interested to hear others’ thoughts though. Try to maintain a considerate, respectful tone please.

Addition: I would like to add the very obvious, that the war in Iraq has also been a major split amoung evangelicals.

Still thinking about the Women in China

I can’t stop thinking about THESE WOMEN in China!

My heart breaks for them and my mind cannot even begin to imagine the horror of their experience. These are my brothers and sisters. I don’t know them, yet we are joined by one Father, God. It grieves me to think of them having to endure this. I just keep thinking, “what in the world can I do?” I am not a powerful politician, or advocate for the religiously oppressed. I am not a pastor, or someone that runs a charity.

Right now in my quiet times (the time I spend during the day reading out of the Bible and praying,) I am reading through Pual’s letters to the Corinthians. I just finished the first letter (1st Corinthians) and am at the beginning of the 2nd letter, (2nd Corinthians). As I have been studying, I have been reading the passage, then going back and re-reading it and writing down what the passage tells me about Jesus. Then, I read over that list, and again read the passage asking myself what my response should be, or put otherwise, “What is my responsibility?”.

1ST CORINTHIANS 1:3-11 READS:

3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
8We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.”

These women are undergoing religious oppression. This is a foreign concept to most of us living in the states. But to these women oppression is concrete reality. They chose to carry their babies to term out of obedience to God and as a result their government forced late term and even full term abortions. They were forced to deliver their babies either dead or almost dead. They are sharing in the sufferings of Christ because they are undergoing much pain for following him. I take comfort that as it says in verse six, as they share in His sufferings they will also share in his comfort.

I also want to point out how Paul talks of being delivered from “such a deadly peril”. He stated, “He will deliver us, on him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayer. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.”

What I am asking you to do if you pray, is PRAY DAILY and more for these women. Pray for the “God of all comfort” to comfort those who mourn, (as promised in this passage and in Matthew 5:4) and pray for their miraculous deliverance, both for those who have gone through this and those set to go through it. Pray that no more babies would be sacrificed at the hands of the Chinese government. That God would deliver and continue to deliver these women, these families. And pray out of urgency and passion with belief that we serve a God that is capable of all things. He hears our prayers for the deliverance of those who are oppressed.

That is all I know how to do right now. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like enough. But verse 10 and 11 make it clear that these prayers do help.

Also PLEASE spread the word. Save Darfur, (a worthy cause,) and The One Campaign, (another worthy cause,) have both gained incredible awareness through grass roots marketing tools that in turn have captured the attention of politicians and governments. We have to keep talking about these women that their sacrifice would not have been in vein but to save others from enduring the same fate.

An incredible charity devoted to Asia that you should check out if you have not before is Asia’s Hope.

If the China Abortion blog interested you.

Please go to here (voice of reason) to get an update.

61 Christian Woman Forced to Have Abortions in China

Taken from Status of Chinese People
Tipped by: A Voice of Reason

61 Christian Women Forced to Have Abortions in China

Posted by chinaview on April 21st, 2007

According to China Aid Association (CAA), a massive forced abortion campaign is ongoing in China’s Guangxi Province targeting Christian pregnant women. It’s reported that 61 Christian women were forced to have abortions in 2 days on April 17 and 18. Here’s China Aid Association’s reports.

41 forced abortion on April 17:

Midland, Texas (April 17, 2007)- CAA has learned that a massive forced abortion campaign is ongoing in China’s Guangxi Province(Autonomous Region).

One Christian lady, Ms. Linrong Wei, 7 months preganent, was dragged into the hospital from her home on April 17 at 8:45 AM (Beijing time) by 10 officials from the Population and Family Planning Commsssion in Baise City, Guangxi. Her husband Yage “James” Liang was formerly a pastor in the government-sanctioned TSPM church before he became a House church pastor a year ago.

According to eyewitnesses’ reports to CAA, 40 other preganant women was forcefully moved to the Youjiang District People’s Hospital of Baise City on the same day to perform forced abortion.

Eyewitnesses told CAA that pastor Liang’s wife was pregenant accidentally and they wanted to keep this baby because of Christian principles. Ms. Wei was injected with medicine to induce birth at 11 AM on April 17. Ms. Wei’s hospital bed number is No. 39.

Eyewitnesses report that another woman, 9 months preganent, on bed number 38 was also injected at 12 PM.

One Church leader in that area who has visited Ms. Wei told CAA that these so-called ‘illegal pregnant women” were treated so bad that they were just forced to lay down on the very simple beds in the hospital corridor before the injections were done.

The family planning officials told relatives of the women that their babies will be born and most likely die within 24 hours.

20 more forced abortion on April 18:

Midland, Texas (April 18, 2007)- The Massive forced abortion campaign continues in Guangxi province. After 41 women were forced to have abortions on April 17, CAA has learned that the Youjiang District People’s Hospital of Baise City performed forced abortions for at least 20 more pregnant women on April 18.

Eyewitnesses report to CAA that at around 5:00pm on April 18, more than 20 more pregnant women were transported into the same hospital by the Family Planning officials. Within 30 minutes, about 10 of them were injected forcefully for an abortion.

This means within last 24 hours, at least 61 babies were killed with forced abortions.

At Bed number 37, Ms. He Caigan was 9 months pregnant. Officials injected her baby’s head and 20 minutes later, her baby stopped moving and died.

About 6am on April 18(BJ time), pastor James Liang’s wife Ms Wei Linrong gave birth to a boy, but he was dead because of the injection. She received three doses of injection-one is to induce the birth and the other two to kill the baby in the womb.

After China Aid reported the forced abortion, many PSB were seen surrounding the section of the hospital where these women are held.

Imus, Richards, Gibson & Hate Speech

If you are on the internet enough to be browsing this blog, than you are probably aware of the buzz surrounding formerly popular talk-show host IMUS. Last November you heard about the rants of Sienfeld’s Kramer, Michael Richards. July 2006, Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic tirade plagued the major news networks.

I will spare you from regurgitating details of the famous “hate speech” of these men. I agree with Southern Girl at Heart’s opinion that requiring people to apologizing when it’s quite possible the only thing they are sorry for is being caught, is pointless.

The fact is the Bible (along with common-sense) says clearly in Matthew 12:33-37:

33″Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. 35The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 36But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. 37For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

If our character is not in check, these things will eventually be exposed. If we feed hateful thoughts, it will be demonstrated eventually by our words or our actions. And the fact is, I don’t think anyone can truly examine themselves and believe that they think 100% loving thoughts about every one they encounter at all times. I’m as guilty as anyone.

I’m not saying that means we should be accepting of Imus’, Richards’, or Gibson’s comments. What I am saying is that it is an opportunity to really examine ourselves to see if our hearts are hateful. If we only work in our lives on the things that people can see, and not things like our character, we our fooling ourselves into believing that people won’t ultimately be able to see that as well.

Anyway, Just had me thinking.